


Picnic Pals

by ReptileRuler



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, Light Angst, fluff with plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29957151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReptileRuler/pseuds/ReptileRuler
Summary: Skoodge keeps an eye on Zim, and reflects on planet earth, and the future.
Relationships: Invader Skoodge & Zim
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	Picnic Pals

**Author's Note:**

> I found this fluffy WIP from 2014 and thought that it was pretty cute. So I weaved in some plot and fixed all of my grammar mistakes, and here we go!
> 
> I will never get enough Zim and Skoodge content.

The universe was full of uninhabited planets. Hunks of rocks with no life to speak of, with temperatures so low that not even the Irken empire cared for them. Fumey planets that smelled of Rat-People farts and required too much terra-forming to be worth the efforts. Gas giants. Planets too close or too far away form their star. Ancient civilizations where every step on the planet’s surface was sure to trigger a booby trap.

Awful places to be stranded on, really.

All things considered, there was nothing wrong with earth. At least not according to Skoodge. At least this time of the year, when the temperatures had started dropping, but they didn’t yet have to deal with snow creating a deadly slush-mixture all over the city. 

But for the moment they were in the countryside, on a field of wilted grass and just a little bit of frost, not enough to worry about. Too late in the season for bugs to sing, and not early enough in the morning for birdsong, but it wasn’t quiet. Of course not, not with Zim here. 

Zim had been working nonstop on a new doomsday device for about two days, and they were finally going to unleash it. Well, Zim was. Skoodge was … acting witness. At a safe distance. Ready to write a potential success into a potential history book. 

"GIR! Watch closely, for TODAY is going to be the LAST PEACEFUL DAY the filthy HUMANS will ever have!" Zim shouted from several length-things away. Skoodge could see him and GIR as two blurry spots in the distance. Sitting on top of the VOOT cruiser gave Skoodge a decent overview of the field. He was content just sitting here, ready to help in case something exploded. Which it often did.

"I'm watching, master! I'm watching VERY CLOSELY!" GIR answered. 

At least they were both loud enough for Skoodge to hear.

"NO, GIR! Not  _ that  _ closely! Your head is in the way! Back! Back off!" Zim barked. They moved a little, but he couldn't see what was going on.

Zim started screaming about some thing or another, which only triggered GIR to scream too, so Skoodge zoned them out and reached into his PAK. The sandwich he’d packed slid out, smelling deliciously of white bread and veggies. He chewed slowly, watching as his smeethood friend and his SIR-unit ran around in circles. 

There was something special about eating outside, he thought. The relative peace of the countryside. No screens or internet connection or homework to worry about. Maybe they should get out more, have a  _ real  _ picnic, like the humans did. Sure, the season was off, but that hardly mattered. Right now was the perfect picnic weather for them!

His sandwich was almost finished when the doomsday device finally exploded. The world erupted in a flash of beautiful reds and yellows, and then the wind and  _ sound  _ hit him, throwing off his senses for a second. He shielded his eyes with his arms, not really worrying about his friend. Zim always survived, one way or another. 

Once the noise had died down into the slight crackling of fire and high pitched, robotic giggles from GIR, he looked up. The entire field was now scorched black and Zim lay face down, a bit to the left from where he’d been standing.

Of course, he knew he was only allowed to come with them so Zim could have someone tell him he's not horrible when he failed, so he jumped off the VOOT and started towards his recovering companion.

"Aw, there, there, Zim, you'll do better next time. I'm sure of it!" He smiled, as encouraging as possible. Zim groaned in response, sitting up.

"Shut up", he muttered, "this was all part of my plan! Yes, to destroy this ... this food growing place! Victory!"

"Whatever you say Zim", Skoodge said light-heartedly and sat beside Zim. 

Zim put his knees to his chest and folded his arms over them. He glared at the field, now ruined much as he claimed to have intended. Soot covered his cheeks and uniform. One antenna was bent a little, but he did not appear too bothered. Must be the one that didn’t have as much sensitivity as it should in the first place. Skoodge could never remember which one. 

It made Skoodge’s organs twist a little, all too aware that they always ended up here. Well, not  _ here  _ in particular. But surrounded by Zim’s destruction. Dead teammates, demolished cities, overloaded planet-wide electricity grids.

Exiled.

"Hey, you could, y'know, take a break from invading for a while”, Skoodge said, despite being quite sure of the answer,” I bet nobody would notice!" 

Zim gasped, eyes going wide.

"I can't do that! The Tallest will wonder why I haven't called them! DIB is going to suspect something and then he will surely break into my beautiful base! He could find my weakness and defeat me!"

Skoodge barely suppressed a sigh. 

The Tallest wouldn't notice Zim's absence, and if they did, they might even celebrate it. Of course, that thing about the Dib was always likely to happen, but Skoodge suspected that the human had come to realize how bad Zim was at invading by now. He might even enjoy a few days without having to fight for the planet!

"Aw, come on! Just for a few days, nobody'll notice! You could do good with some vacation, Zim", Skoodge tried again.

"Ha! Vacation? ZIM? I need no vacation, my mission is my life! Working tirelessly to fulfill my mission is the only thing I can ever enjoy", he said, shaking his fists around. 

Mhm. Skoodge took notice of the bags under his eyes and the stiffness in his back from being hunched over an invention for too long. An invention which had just exploded in his face a few minutes ago.

"I get why you want to finish your mission as fast as possible, but can you really do that without being well rested? I mean, it can't hurt to just take a little breather, now can it?" If this had been a real mission, then a break would be completely unthinkable, but the only one in the universe thinking this was real was Zim. Well, maybe Dib too, but Skoodge was pretty sure he'd figured it out. If he hadn't, he sure as heck was close to.

Zim made a 'pfffft' sound but didn't answer.

They watched as GIR put himself on fire for a while. The sky was turning lighter on the horizon, birds waking up and their song reaching from the nearby forest all the way to Skoodge’s antennae.

"Oh, hey, I brought soap bubbles!" Skoodge suddenly remembered and opened his PAK.

"Huh?" Zim mumbled and glanced at him. He grabbed a bright red tube from his PAK and opened it. The label promised the ‘ultimate soap bubble fun!!!’. Hundreds of tiny see-through bubbles erupted into the air when Skoodge blew at the stick part, dancing along in the breeze. Skoodge looked at Zim who looked at the bubbles with big eyes.

"What are these?!" He exclaimed and got up, attempting to touch a bubble. It popped in his face. "More! Make more!" Skoodge chuckled and obliged. Zim jumped and waved his arms and popped all of them. Skoodge blew once more. Zim kept on trying to hit them all, but this time, the wind grabbed them and lifted them out of his reach.

"Hey! Come back! Come back, you little bubbles of ... cleanliness!" Zim exclaimed and ran after them. Skoodge shrugged. He'd come back. Skoodge blew some more bubbles.

"Watcha doin', masta?" GIR screamed in the distance.

"Be quiet, GIR! Your master is doing some very ... important ... stuff", Zim answered. Skoodge could see Zim jump and clap his hands. "I got one!" He ran back to Skoodge. "Make more, Skoodge! MORE!"

"Sure thing, Zim", Skoodge said and blew, this time more carefully, and the soap stretched and wobbled, creating one big bubble instead of many tiny ones. Zim stared at it for a while, his large eyes reflecting on the soapy surface of the bubble. Pink, oily, see-through, it floated lazily, the weight of it too much to let it fly off like the tiny ones had.

Then Zim popped it. Skoodge made another big one, which actually got to live for a while as Zim followed it with his gaze. It fought against gravity, wobbling and distorting, until it hit the scorched ground and popped. Zim looked at Skoodge.

“This is it, Skoodge!” He exclaimed. “This, this soap bubble technology! That is how we will take over this filthy planet!”

Oh… Already back to scheming.

“Well”, Skoodge mumbled, “We could do that. Or! We could just have fun with them. Not  _ everything  _ has to be an evil plan, you know.”

“Hah! You sound like you don’t even want me to finish my mission!” Zim laughed. “Do you grow attached to this miserable rock, Skoodge? Do you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with earth”, Skoodge shrugged. Breathable air, the rats were smaller than a smeet, and holidays centered around candy! The only drawback would be the acid rain and snow but even then, they had precautions for when that happened.

“You, my stout friend, are simply a bad Invader!”

Skoodge blew hundreds of more bubbles, and smiled as Zim gasped and reached for them. Though it seemed he lost interest in running around, because Zim then plopped down onto his butt and watched the surviving bubbles get carried away in the wind. The rising run tinted them a whitish yellow, as they disappeared out of sight.

“I think we should have a picnic”, Skoodge said as he continued blowing bubbles. “Pack a bunch of sandwiches and get a patterned blanket to sit on and everything. It’ll be fun.”

“There’s no time for picnics!” Zim kicked his heels against the ground. “The mission!”

“... It’ll make us look normal?”

“... Hmm.”

Zim looked up at the now star-free sky above. His antennae twitched once, twice. More bubbles wafted upwards to intermingle with the clouds.

“I suppose,” Zim started, “that blending in is just as important for the mission as my ingenious plans are. Yes! We shall plan a picnic, and oh what a picnic it shall be! NONE will ever doubt the normal-ness of ZIM and Skoodge, the most human, eh-” One of Zim’s arms had wrapped around Skoodge’s shoulder and he leaned his head to the side to look into Skoodge’s eyes.“ -the most human, picnic… pals. Yes!”

“Picnic pals!” Skoodge cheered.

“Picnic pals!” came GIR’s voice, from somewhere in some bushes far away.

Out of all the planets to settle down on, earth was up there as one of the more decent ones. Skoodge would like it if Zim saw that… because he had the sneaking feeling that one day, the Tallest would tire of him.

He stood and stretched, and reached for Zim’s hand to help him up.

“That’s great! I could make all of your favorite snacks to bring”, Skoodge said, and smiled at how Zim perked up.

“Of course it is great. I am great, and this was my brilliant idea, after all”, Zim huffed. 

For now, Skoodge would do what he could. Distract Zim with harmless fun. Give him the attention he needed, patch him up on the rare occasions he actually hurt himself with his plans.

“Sure!” Skoodge agreed as he followed Zim back to the VOOT, their outing coming to an end as the sun rose and Zim would have to get home in time to put on clean clothes and go to school.

Maybe, if Dib really had figured it out already, he would be fine with helping out. That human boy was clever, and more empathetic than he let on. When it all went down, Zim would need as much support as possible. Dib, the ever constant, headstrong human that probably played a bigger role in his life that Skoodge could imagine, could be part of that support, if he chose to.

“GIR! We’re leaving!” Zim shouted. GIR giggled and came flying out of the bushes, crashing into his master so that they both crashed into the ground again.

And GIR would help, of course. Silly as he were, he mattered so much to Zim. It reminded Skoodge of how the older, taller smeets would take care of the smaller and younger ones back on Irk, a hundred years ago when they were still in the underground education plugs, learning how to be good Irkens. Or how humans took care of their pets, or even little siblings.

But, that was all for the future. 

As Skoodge climbed into the VOOT cruiser and squeezed himself into the seat beside Zim, he thought about planet earth.

They were stuck here, even though only he had accepted that. But, it wasn’t too bad.

With the right company, he decided that it was pretty great, even.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank u for reading <3 Please leave a comment if u want to.


End file.
